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Homemade ice cream often fails our childhood expectations of a thick, creamy, frozen confection. It’s frequently lighter, softer, and more fragile on the tongue. This is ironic, because the “real” ice cream mouthfeel we learned from childhood is typically created by the addition of gummy stabilizers. Other times, however, it’s the home ice cream making machine’s fault.
A good ice cream maker will turn out a product that’s consistent in texture without icy shards or soupy spots. It should also be easy to use and clean. Making ice cream at home should not be backbreaking work.
I chose four models to test. Two are highly rated electric versions, one is a classic I’ve always been curious about, and the last is a novelty item that was too strange to resist.
I put them through their paces with my friend David Lebovitz’s rich vanilla ice cream recipe from his book The Perfect Scoop. It’s deeply fragrant with whole Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans, and, when made correctly, acts as a luxuriously creamy canvas for everything from ripe, juicy berries to crunchy caramelized hazelnuts or warm chocolate sauce.
Supreme Commercial Quality Ice Cream Maker
By Cuisinart, $299
The Supreme Commercial Quality Ice Cream Maker by Cuisinart has a built-in compressor, so it freezes by itself. There’s no ice, salt, or bowl to prefreeze. You can make batch after batch of 1 1/2 quarts in 30 to 40 minutes a pop. There’s a timer you can set to run the machine automatically.
This is an excellent ice cream maker. The resulting product is thoroughly velvety, and the process of making it almost effortless. Though all parts are hand wash only, the unit’s streamlined design makes cleaning easy. It is big and heavy, but there are sturdy handles to lift it. Plus it’s beautiful enough to simply leave on your kitchen counter.
Extra bowls are available for only $6 each. I highly recommend them to make the most of your machine. Rather than scooping one bowl empty to start a new batch, you can have another on hand to get the next flavor started quickly.
Automatic Frozen Yogurt/Ice Cream/Sorbet Maker (Model ICE-20)
By Cuisinart, $49.95
The Cuisinart ICE-20 is compact and electric. It uses a double-insulated bowl filled with a cooling liquid inside its walls. You have to first freeze the liquid solid, until there’s no more sloshing sound when shaken. According to the manufacturer, this can take anywhere from six to 22 hours, depending on your freezer. (And Cuisinart suggests wrapping the bowl in a plastic bag to prevent freezer burn.) The machine makes 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream in 20 to 30 minutes.
After the bowl is frozen, place it on the machine, rest the mixing arm in its center, pour in the ice cream base, cover with the transparent housing, and turn the machine on.
The ICE-20 also makes very good ice cream consistently, each batch smooth and creamy throughout. And it’s inexpensive and small. Overall, it’s a great machine.
Hand-wash everything except the motor.
4-Quart Hand-Crank White Mountain Ice Cream Freezer
By Rival, $126.38
This classic wooden-bucket, hand-crank device by Rival looks like a prop from Little House on the Prairie. Inside the bucket is a stainless steel can and dasher (the vertical paddle that turns by cranking the handle). A 6-quart model is also available. Despite their antiquated appearance, the metal parts are actually dishwasher safe.
This machine does make a large amount of good, fully blended ice cream, but it’s pricey and tedious to use. The manufacturer says it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to make 4 quarts (1 gallon) of ice cream, but unless you’re cranking in really cold conditions, plan on at least 30 minutes to an hour. My guess is that if you broke this out at a party, friends and family would be falling all over themselves to help you churn at first, but after a few minutes they would get bored and wander off. Kids might last a couple more minutes, but an hour? Unlikely.
The unit weighs about 15 pounds empty, far more when full, so the flimsy wire handle on the bucket itself is merely decorative. Good luck finding a cabinet big enough to stash it in. Maybe there’s room in the barn.
Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker
By Industrial Revolution, $24.99–$46.13
The Play & Freeze looks like a futuristic soccer ball, but it’s actually a hard, hollow plastic sphere designed for making ice cream. It’s often sold at camping stores, the idea being, I suppose, that it doesn’t require any electricity and is sort of compact, so you could ostensibly use it off the grid.
Pack the ball with ice and rock salt, then screw on the lid. Through an opening on the other side, pour your ice cream base into the metal cylindrical core. The instructions say to shake the ball or simply pass it around for 10 to 15 minutes to mix and freeze the base. When time’s up, open the ice cream end with the plastic wrench provided, then scrape and stir. You’re not done yet. Empty any water from the ice end, repack it with ice, and repeat the process. The ball maker says that the finished texture of the ice cream will depend on a lot of factors, including the amount of ice, your base ingredients, the outside temperature, and how much you shake the ball.
Unfortunately, if you play with the Play & Freeze, you yourself will freeze: The plastic gets very cold. Plus, when full of ice and ice cream base, it’s very, very heavy. Industrial Revolution does warn against kicking or throwing the ball, and suggests parental supervision.
The results are a few mouthfuls of hard, icy dessert, interspersed with softer, soupier areas.
Find me a kid who would have fun shaking a frozen bowling ball for at least 30 minutes, then enjoy hand washing all the parts later, and I have the perfect ice cream maker for you.
Shopping for new gear? What would you like Louisa to test next? Email gear@chow.com.
My son has a life-threatening nut allergy and good safe ice cream is hard to come by, so I got the Cuisinart that came with 2 bowls. We keep one in the chest freezer all the time. I like it, but don't love it. It is noisy and sometimes on a hot day, you still have put the ice cream into the freezer after the churn to get the right consistency. I have learned to wrap the bowl in tin foil to keep...+READ
My son has a life-threatening nut allergy and good safe ice cream is hard to come by, so I got the Cuisinart that came with 2 bowls. We keep one in the chest freezer all the time. I like it, but don't love it. It is noisy and sometimes on a hot day, you still have put the ice cream into the freezer after the churn to get the right consistency. I have learned to wrap the bowl in tin foil to keep it from warming up as the churn progresses.
I have used an electric one that used ice and salt to freeze and the consistency of the ice cream at the end of the churn was perfect. But you had a big mess to clean up.-COLLAPSE
We've had the hand-crank churn for years. It's never taken an hour to make ice cream. I'd hate to do it alone, but with a few people to take turns it's fun & easy. There are enough (too many!) appliances in the world. Slow down & enjoy the ice cream.
A lot of old folks have fond memories of cranking their old White Mountain icecream maker. Maybe they can teach the kids a thing or two about patience, hard work, and earning your luxuries?
No. Didn't think so.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/05/white_mountain.php
Just got my ice cream bowl attachment for the kitchenaid from amazon! (to answer mojo...it fits both the artisan and the pro via an adapter) Looks so easy to use and maintain nothing complicated about it whatsoever, all I have to do is freeze the bowl. Anyone have any homemade ice cream recipes? I'll browse the recipe section in the meantime...thnx!
I love reading Daniel's blog. As a college student, an ice cream maker would be horribly impractical, but it'll be one of the first things I register if/when I get married.
tehlizzard ... i want one ! what size mixer does it fit ? or both maybe ?
I have the Cuisinart ice cream maker above, and I love it. As the article says, it's easy to clean, simple to use, attractive, and relatively fast. I have two main complaints with it: It's loud, sometimes VERY loud, and it doesn't make very much ice cream at a time... enough for a small dinner party, or a few household desserts. Not ideal for a device that has nearly the footprint of my microwave...+READ
I have the Cuisinart ice cream maker above, and I love it. As the article says, it's easy to clean, simple to use, attractive, and relatively fast. I have two main complaints with it: It's loud, sometimes VERY loud, and it doesn't make very much ice cream at a time... enough for a small dinner party, or a few household desserts. Not ideal for a device that has nearly the footprint of my microwave oven.-COLLAPSE
TrueDionysian--I also have the ice cream attachment for the KitchenAid mixer and it's great! You have to freeze the bowl before using it, so it requires some planning, but I've had great results.
I had the cuisinart freeze-the-bowl model and after a few years it stopped freezing cold enough, even after days. Does the liquid start to degrade?
I'm sure these are great, but you don't need to spend that much money (or resort to the Play & Freeze) to make great ice cream at home. I bought mine for $16.95 a few years back and have been enjoying delicious homemade ice cream ever since. The churning mechanism is electronic, but it uses ice and rock salt instead of a bowl that you store in the freezer. I actually prefer this, as I don't...+READ
I'm sure these are great, but you don't need to spend that much money (or resort to the Play & Freeze) to make great ice cream at home. I bought mine for $16.95 a few years back and have been enjoying delicious homemade ice cream ever since. The churning mechanism is electronic, but it uses ice and rock salt instead of a bowl that you store in the freezer. I actually prefer this, as I don't always have freezer space to store the bowl in there just in case the urge to make ice cream strikes. The old-fashioned ice and salt method allows me to spontaneously decide to mix up a batch of ice cream rather than planning ahead with freezing bowls and such... Plus, the bucket is a lovely shade of hot pink. ;-)-COLLAPSE
I use my kitchenaid ice cream maker all the time and I've never had a problem with it. It stops churning when its thick enough and then into the freezer for an hour or so, it makes a very consistantly creamy product. I'm surprised it wasn't included in the review considering most people already have dedicated counter space for their mixer and not alot more room for a huge ice cream maker the size...+READ
I use my kitchenaid ice cream maker all the time and I've never had a problem with it. It stops churning when its thick enough and then into the freezer for an hour or so, it makes a very consistantly creamy product. I'm surprised it wasn't included in the review considering most people already have dedicated counter space for their mixer and not alot more room for a huge ice cream maker the size of small R2 unit. Yes.... big dork right here.-COLLAPSE
Awesome! I think I'm gonna go for it...along with the pasta attachment, but that's another topic for antoher board lol...thanks!
TrueDionysian--Yes! I have the ice maker attachment for my KA, and I really like it. I've only used it a couple of times so far, but I had no problems with it. I've made ice cream and sorbet, and the texture was fine with both.
While we're on the topic...I'm curious to know if anyone has any experience with the ice cream maker attachment for the kithchenaid artisan stand mixer?
There's a Cuisinart model quite similar to the ICE-20, except its exterior is molded to resemble an old fashioned hand-cranked model. I've been quite happy with mine--it's easy to store, it freezes ice cream quickly, and it's a good price for a dependable machine. I keep its bowl in the freezer all of the time so it's ready to use on a whim.
We have the hand-cranked version of the ICE-20 at our shore house, and the frozen canister is useful for tasks besides making ice cream. We eat breakfast and dinner out on our porch, and the frozen canister is great for keeping the half-and-half cold so we don't have to run into the house every time we pour a new cup of coffee. At dinnertime, we'll keep the bottom half of a bottle of white wine...+READ
We have the hand-cranked version of the ICE-20 at our shore house, and the frozen canister is useful for tasks besides making ice cream. We eat breakfast and dinner out on our porch, and the frozen canister is great for keeping the half-and-half cold so we don't have to run into the house every time we pour a new cup of coffee. At dinnertime, we'll keep the bottom half of a bottle of white wine chilled in it.-COLLAPSE
Thanks, Louisa. The $299 Cuisinart sounds like the one for me. When I was a child, my parents used to rave about the ice cream that they had (home-) made as kids. They bought me what I think was the motorized version of the White Mountain model listed above. (This was 40+ years ago.)
It required a heavy investment in commercially-made ice, since our refrigerator only had traditional ice cube...+READ
Thanks, Louisa. The $299 Cuisinart sounds like the one for me. When I was a child, my parents used to rave about the ice cream that they had (home-) made as kids. They bought me what I think was the motorized version of the White Mountain model listed above. (This was 40+ years ago.)
It required a heavy investment in commercially-made ice, since our refrigerator only had traditional ice cube trays and vastly more ice was needed, both for the churning process and later for the packing in ice to "harden" the ice cream. The rock salt I had to buy wasn't all that cheap, either. This was quite an investment for a twelve year-old.
After I made the ice cream, it was soft and icy tasting--far inferior to what I could buy at the store for much less money. My parents, I think, were disappointed, too. They urged me to "harden" the ice cream by packing it in its metal container, in ice, per the machine's instructions. I did so and the ice cream became incredibly dense and hard, but it was still extremely icy. It was as if it had no air in it at all.
Over the years, I made ice cream on other occasions, varying the freezing time. My parents and others had suggested that perhaps I was freezing the ice cream too slowly or too quickly. I had originally tried a basic "cream and sugar" recipe and some people suggested that I needed an emulsifier, such as egg yolks, to smooth out the ice cream. I tried that, using standard recipes from the ice cream maker machine's instruction manual and from cookbooks. The egg-based concoctions were a little smoother, but still awfully icy and grainey. They were not even close to the creaminess of the good commercial ice creams which my family bought.
Eventually, the ice cream maker was relegated to the basement, where, on special occasions, urged by my parents, I took it out of storage and dusted it off, to try yet again, a new ice cream recipe that would produce a decent result. Hope sprang eternal, but I never made a successful ice cream.
One thing that I did like about the homemade ice cream was that it was far more intensely vanilla-flavored than commercial ice cream.
I may buy that $299 Cuisinart that does not require the mess, expense, and preplanning of purchasing commercially made bags of ice and rock salt. I'm relatively old now (well, 50+) and I can afford it. Like Charlie Brown who keeps trusting that Lucy won't yank that football away when he tries to kick it, I'll give homemade ice cream another try--if for no other reason, then to remember my parents who still swore until they died that the homemade ice cream of their youth was far superior to the commercial stuff.-COLLAPSE